Derelict Victorian Cellar Transformed Into a Cinema Room

Posted: May 26, 2016 - 14:53

By: Emma Page

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This Victorian country house was purchased in 2010. The house, though spacious, lacked a cosy, small, intimate room for the family to relax. All of the existing ground floor rooms have high ceilings, large windows and are grand entertaining type rooms. When the owners first saw the derelict Victorian cellar being used to store coal, with it’s earth floor and dank walls, they immediately saw the potential to make it into a cosy room with dim lighting and an enormous screen, powerful sound system and comfortable chairs.

The Big Challenges

The room was small and dank with a very low ceiling and a rotten staircase. Within weeks of moving into the property, somebody had fallen through a rotten stair tread and injured themselves and it was therefore concluded that the whole staircase was at the end of it’s useful life and needed to be ripped out and replaced. The walls were damp and the room smelly, so these issues needed to be addressed so that the Victorian cellar could be used for a domestic purpose. Having an additional reception room would also add value to the house. The ceiling was very low (around 5ft 6inches) and with the requirement to dry line the floor, screed it and add hardwood flooring (which would add a minimum of 4 inches to the floor level), the only solution was to lower the floor level to give a decent head height of at least 6ft. To be used for a domestic purpose, the room needed to have its own standalone fire escape, in case a fire started on the ground floor of the house and the staircase up to higher floors would not be accessible.

Choosing the builder and doing the structural work

Within weeks of moving into the house, the owners had invited a number of builders to visit to quote on the work to the Victorian cellar. Some of these companies were specialists in basement conversions and others were general builders. All were given an identical briefing as the owners were experienced renovators and used to hiring contractors. Having spoken to several of the basement specialists along with other general builders, quotations were obtained between £8,000 and £30,000. One worry was that they were undecided about how high the specification of the basement damp proofing needed to be in order to satisfy the Builder Inspector. They therefore invited the local Building Inspector to visit to advise on the specification that would satisfy the Council and be adequate for their requirements. Luckily, the Builder Inspector that visited was very helpful and a specification was agreed with him then and there. It was suggested that the work would be completed on a Building Notice. This negated the need to submit plans to the Council and get them approved, saving on time, and meant that they didn’t need to hire an architect to draw up any plans - a real saving on cost. A Building Notice is a method of working where the Building Inspector visits regularly to review each stage of the work and agree the next stage. This is a more collaborative way of working with the Council than simply submitting plans and awaiting them to be approved or rejected. As the house is built on a small hill with earth banked up around (the basement is only partially under the usual ground level), the Victorian cellar is not susceptible to flooding. Therefore, the level and specification of damp proofing required was significantly less than for a conventional basement of a terraced house on a city street.

The specification agreed on to damp proof the room was:

• Walls stripped down to brickwork
• Floor dug out by 2 feet
• Brickwork covered in a thick coat of bitumen
• Damp proof membrane fixed onto floor and walls
• Battoning over the damp proof membrane
• Insulation on floor, ceiling and walls
• Plasterboard on walls and ceiling
• Walls and ceiling plastered, with downlights as ceiling lights to save on headroom
• Screed on floor, followed by solid wood floor
• The main basement window to be replaced by a window to open outwards, with a basement ladder outside and a grille over it.

Working closely with the Building Inspector provided peace of mind to the owners that there were not going to be any issues flagged with the robustness of the damp proofing at a later date. This potentially saved the owners many thousands of pounds as the solution chosen was pragmatic rather than a ploy for a Basement Specialist to sell them a top spec job which was unnecessary for these specific requirements. A general builder and 3 labourers were employed to carry out this work. The first job to be carried out was ripping out the staircase. A new staircase was put on order with a 6 week lead time, along with two new windows and a fire escape ladder. The next job was to lower the floor. At first the work was very labour intensive as the earth dug out of the floor had to be lifted out through the basement window, opening in buckets so as to keep the mess contained within the basement. The first fix for all of the electrical requirements needed to be carried out before walls were plastered so that the wiring for the sophisticated sound system and multiple speakers was buried into the walls and not visible once the Victorian cellar renovation was completed. This required detailed planning by the owners so that the position of all sockets, light fittings, speakers, switches and other electrical installations were planned out in detail. The rest of the building work progressed quickly and within 6 weeks the builders left so that the owners could complete the fit out themselves. The owners fitted plaster coving to the ceiling, laid an oak floor, decorated the room and chose a cinema sound system and large flat screen TV which was installed by their electrician. Before the new staircase was installed, a 4 person leather sofa was lowered down the stairwell which would have been impossible to get into the basement with the staircase in place. Once the new staircase was installed, it was painted and then a high traffic carpet was laid in a neutral colour.

The finishing touches

The owners completed the cinema theme of the room by adding some classic film posters. This Victorian cellar renovation is now the hub of family and social life with a cinema screen, karaoke machine and gaming – their children have never been more popular.